In the past, businesses were limited to consumers of goods and services in their locale or local geography typically in person. In face-to-face (F2F) communication, the senders and receivers in a conversation are capable of seeing and hearing the people they are talking to. F2F communication may prevent one from saying something inappropriate or embarrassing in some cases because they can more easily identify a receiver's ethnicity, gender, special need, etc. F2F communication also permits the use of verbal (e.g., inflection, pitch, etc.) and non-verbal cues (e.g., facial expression, proximity, etc.) to interpret tone, emotion, urgency, etc.
Companies now more than ever are conducting business globally and often using electronic communication means such as e-mails, text messages and live chat sessions. Communication methods that are not in person, like electronic mail or text messages may be subject to misinterpretation because of differences in the culture and dialects of the sender and receiver and the means to convey emotion that one intends to communicate across are limited.
Consider the following scenario. Joe Smith is the lead project manager (PM) on a global project with a team in China. Joe is sending Yao, the PM in China, a note regarding the stipulations for hiring contractors for the project. In his email, Joe comments on how they need to be very explicit in defining the terms of the amount of work contractors can do per week for fear that they will go “belly up” if given too much work over the duration of the contract. Yao looks up the phrase “belly up”, for example through Google™, to get a definition of what is to Yao an unfamiliar phrase. Wiktionary™, for example, returns the following results:
Adjective:                1. (idiomatic) Dead or defunct, often used with go, went, or turn.                    After several financial failures, the organization went belly up.                        
Verb:                1. (idiomatic) To gather close to, or approach eagerly or assertively, as a bar for ordering alcoholic drinks.                    He bellied up to the bar as soon as he saw a free stool.                        
From the above results, Yao immediately phones Joe to discuss the contractual terms for fear that they may put lives at risk. Joe answers Yao's call and after hearing Yao's concerns they laugh it off and Joe explains the meaning of this American expression. The above presented an example of a scenario that ended well. In other cases, one may end up offending the other side, which can be costly particularly in a delicate situation.